Member Articles

Going Green in the Kitchen

She started by looking for eco-friendly alternatives

Chemicals and toxins enter our bodies easily, through the air we breathe, absorbed via our skin, or ingested through our food and water supplies. They quietly -- and sometimes not so quietly -- build up inside our bodies, lodging in our organs, bones and blood stream, greatly effecting our health and well being over time. In fact, the World Health Organization says that 90 percent of disease can be connected to toxins in our environment.

Recent research and case studies show that many items we have bought and used in our homes over the years are not as safe as we may once have thought. For more than 20 years, I have tried to reduce the amounts of chemicals and toxins that my family are being exposed to.

If you are keen to save some money this year, help our planet out, reduce toxins and chemicals from your personal living space, and go a little greener then a great place to start is in your kitchen. Plastics are one man-made product that I am aiming to eliminate as much as possible from our home, particularly in the kitchen and in school lunch boxes. Made from petroleum, plastic can leach many extremely harmful toxins such as Bisphenol A (BPA), which is getting a lot of press at the moment particularly in relation to babies bottles.

The main focus with these six suggestions for the kitchen is to replace a plastic product with a greener, more eco-friendly option.

1. Use a wooden chopping board. I prefer bamboo, because it is an ecologically attractive alternative to other woods. It grows much more quickly than other hardwoods, absorbs very little moisture, and will not shrink or swell. Surprisingly, it is also harder that most woods, making it a superior material for use in cutting. The best part is that one side of a bamboo cutting board can be used for cutting and the other for serving.

2. Switch from a plastic kettle to a stainless steel one. I’ve opted for a stainless steel kettle, which may not be as pretty looking as the colourful and cheaper plastic kettles, but its a health choice I am very happy with.

3. Use glass baby bottles. This is particularly important one for mothers with young children or anyone about to have children. Plastic baby bottles have been the popular choice for many years. Now with recent research, evidence suggests that glass bottles are a safer and healthier product. (Tiffany over at Nature Moms last suggests some great alternatives to plastic baby bottles.)

4. Switch your plastic storage containers to glass. It may take some time to switch all of your plastic storage containers over to ceramic, glass, or stainless steel, but its definitely worthwhile. Glass is obviously a wiser choice for the planet ,as it can easily be recycled and does not take hundreds of years to break down like plastic.

3 comments so far...

excellent article and great ideas on how anyone can make a difference just by the daily changes they can make in and around their house or apartment. As for the white vinegar, it really works and is nontoxic. A few years ago i made the switch to white vinegar and antibacterial after watching one of th most well known colleges in the idea did a forum on the research on this. It was incredible!

Great article. I had just written a mini-book review/rant in "Greenies" about "The Hundred Year Lie" book. To flip over to articles and see this makes me think the Universe is trying to tell me something : )